The Mike Black Saga Book One (8 page)

My cocaine.

I’ve never done cocaine in my life, but I would always keep some around ‘cause some women would freak for it. That night, André gave me some pure; just chipped it off the block, bagged it and handed it to me. When I got home the next morning, instead of puttin’ a cut on it, I threw the bag on the coffee table and crashed on the couch.

I had been asleep a couple of hours I guess, when Vickie came in.
 
She had a key to the crib, the whole nine, and that was cool. We had it like that and she was down with us. We talked for a minute then I passed out again. When I woke up I decided to get in the bed, but the door to my room was locked. I knocked on the door, but Vickie didn’t answer. After a while I kicked the door in. I found her lying on the floor naked, with the pipe still in her hand.

I called 911. Ambulance came, and so did the cops. They wanted to charge me, but André took care of that.

Nick Simmons

After Vickie died it was like something snapped inside of him. You wouldn’t know it to see him or talk to him, but that was when he really earned the name, Vicious Black. The first time I really noticed it, he had called me and said, “Come scoop me up, Nick. I gotta make a run.”

Whenever he said that, we knew he was going to either collect money for
Andréor
hurt somebody for not paying. And you hated to see Black coming, ‘
cause
you knew why he was there, and it was all bad. I picked Black up and we were on our way to see an old hustler named Wilson Goode.

“So what’s up with good old Mr. Wilson?” I asked.

“He owes
Andréfifty
large,” Black replied.

“For what? Wilson’s a pimp. How’d
Andréget
his hooks into him?”

“Says Wilson came to him, wanting to borrow fifty grand. You know at twenty-five cents on the dollar
Andréwas
more than happy to front it to him. When he couldn’t pay,
Andréput
that ass to work. But he’s been playin’
Andréoff
for a couple of weeks now. Cynt said that Wilson was at her spot late one night and he dropped ten grand playing
poker
. Said he had some young girl with him.”

“Young girl and
a
old man, cause of trouble since the world began,” I said laughing.

“I thought it was a two faced woman and a jealous man, that was the cause of trouble since the world began.”

“Whatever, Black.” We both laughed.

“I know the little honey he got himself hooked up with,” Black said. “She’s a fine ass bitch.”

“Can I fuck her?”

“Don’t waste your time. She thinks she is too pretty to move. Wasn’t even worth the time it took for me to get undressed.”

“I hate it when that happens.”

When we got to Wilson’s apartment I knocked on the door, but nobody answered. “I know he’s in there. I hear them talking.”

Black stepped up to the door and listened for a second or two, then he put both of his hands on the door and pushed it.

“Move back.”

Then he took a step back and kicked it in. Black stepped aside and I ran in with my gun out. Black followed me in calmly with his hands in his coat pockets. There was Wilson and two very pretty young ladies. Both of them were naked, and all Wilson had on was his underwear. On the coffee table was cocaine. Some rock and some powder and two or three pipes.

“What the fuck!” Wilson shouted. “What the fuck you mutha fuckas doing here? And my fuckin’ door! Y’all gonna fix my door.”

When Black saw the dope on the table his eyes narrowed.

“Black! You hear me talkin’ to you nigga! Black! What the fuck is goin’ on here?”

But Black didn’t answer. He just stood there staring at the dope.

“
Andrésent
us,” I finally said. “He wants his money.”

“I’m a get him his money, Black. I just need a day or two to make some things happen. You tell him that.”

“You two get dressed and get outta here,” Black said to the women.

“They ain’t gotta go nowhere. Y’all ain’t gotta go nowhere. They were just about to leave.”

“I ain’t gonna say it again.” And with that, both ladies got up and went in the bedroom. “Go with them, Nick.” I did so, gladly.

While I was in there watching the ladies get dressed, I could hear Wilson yelling at Black, but Black never said a word. Once I escorted the ladies out, Black took a gun and a silencer out of his pocket.

“Search the place, Nick. Find me some money.”

Black put the silencer on the gun, but the whole time he’s staring at the table. I put on my gloves and tossed the place.

By this time, Wilson’s whole attitude had changed. Now, with the ladies gone, he was
beggin
’ Black to give him a couple of days to come up with the money.

“I found this under the mattress,” I said, handing Black twenty grand.

“On the real, Black, I need that money to make this thing happen. Give me ‘til tomorrow, Black. I’ll make it
worth while
for both of you.”

Black stood up. I started for the door thinking that Black would just take the money and be back on that ass again tomorrow. But not this time. Black raised his gun and fired two shots to Wilson’s head.

This is how it went.
Andréwould
send Black to collect, and Black would kill them. After awhile,
Andrésent
Black away before he killed everybody that sold for him.
that’s
when he went to the islands looking for his father.

I remember one New Years Eve, Black closed all the gambling houses, in spite of the money he knew he’d make that night, and had a party for everybody that worked for him. Which was nice, or so we all thought. The party was held at one of the house that was run by Gary Banks. Like everybody else, Banks made a pledge to Black not to sell drugs, which to Black was rule number one.

The party was wild, with plenty of food, drink, and woman naturally. Everybody was having a good time, except Black and Bobby. They, for the most part, sat at a table in the back of the room and talked quietly amongst themselves. At one point in the evening, Black walked up to me at the bar and asked, “
You
havin’ a good time?”

“Yeah, man, shit, havin’ a ball,” I said to a very serious looking Black. I then turned my attention back one of the women that worked at the house. I began to walk off and take her upstairs to one of the rooms, when Black grabbed me by the arm.

“Nick! Have fun, but you and Freeze don’t drink too much tonight, I got something important I want y’all to do later.”

“No problem. Drinkin’ ain’t what I got in mind right now,” I replied then went on to handle my business.

At midnight everybody got together in the main room to drink champagne and bring in the New Year. Black said a few words, and then he went and reclaimed his seat next to Bobby. About three in the morning, Wanda went around and said goodbye to everyone and Black walked her to her car. When he returned he looked at Bobby and nodded his head. Bobby got up and the two of them started goin’ around room to everybody and handed each one an envelope. After receiving it, each one quietly left the house. I called Freeze over, “Something’s about to happen,” I said.

“What you talkin’ ‘bout, Nick?”

“Check it. Everybody’s leavin’.
Either Black or Bobby hands them an envelope, and
then they leave.”

“I know. Black just givin’ everybody a little somethin’, you know, breakin’ them off a little change.”

“Oh, okay, cool,” I said to Freeze, but I had a feelin’ that it was more than that. He waited until Wanda was gone, which meant he planned to do something that he wanted Wanda to have no part in. Black always has been very protective of Wanda and her involvement in the business. His waiting until she was gone only meant one thing.

After a while, almost everyone was gone. All of the women, which let
me
know the party was over, except Cynthia. Cynt is the only woman that runs a house for Black. In fact, the only people left were the ones who ran houses and a few of the guy’s that ran numbers or did loan sharking.

Jamaica walked over to the band and sent them home. He said a few words to Bobby and left with them. Once Bobby locked the door, it was on. Black got up and walked to the front of the room. “I wanted to thank everybody for comin’ out and spending the New Year with us.”

“We gonna get a bonus too, Black?” Banks yelled out.

Black looked annoyed by the question.

“Everybody is gonna get theirs, nigga, trust me,” Bobby said.

“I’ve known everybody in this room for a long time,” Black continued. “I even like most of you. I don’t know if y’all like me or not, and to be honest, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you trust me, and that I can trust you. That’s what makes us a family; trust, loyalty, and honor.”

With that Bobby began walking around the room and continued to pass out envelopes. He stopped in front of me and Freeze and handed us our envelope. “You and Freeze go stand by Mike,” Bobby whispered before moving on. We got up and walked over to where Black was standing. He motioned for us to sit down and he continued talking.

“In order for us to continue to earn a livin’, we have all chosen to live by certain rules. Rules that were put in place to insure that we can do that. Rules that each person in this room has sworn to me that they will uphold over everything else.” Black started walking around the room. “Anybody who doesn’t follow these rules puts all of us in danger. I spent a lot of time thinking about this; tryin’ to give the betrayal of these rules a name. I even went to the library and did some research on the subject.”

Even though everybody laughed, this really didn’t surprise anybody. Black going to the library, I mean. Although he basically stopped going to class when he was fifteen, Black read everything he could get his hands on.
 

“The word I came up with is treason. According to the American Heritage dictionary treason means, the betrayal of
ones
country, by aiding the enemy. It comes from the Latin word
traditio
, which means a handing over. But I prefer the Columbia Encyclopedia’s definition better. Treason is the legal term for various acts of disloyalty. English law originally distinguished high treason from petty treason. Petty treason was the murder of one’s lawful superior, or the murder of his master by an apprentice. High treason was a serious threat to the stability or continuity of the state. Shit like attempts to kill the king, the queen, or to wage war against the kingdom. Especially cruel methods were used in executing traitors.

“Now to avoid the abuses of the English law, treason was specifically defined in the U.S. Constitution. Article 3 of the Constitution says that treason shall consist only in waging war against the United States or in giving aid and comfort to its enemies. And that conviction may be had only on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.

“The most treasonous activity in American history was the planned surrender of the fort at West Point to the British. It was to be carried out by a general, who I’m sure all of you have heard of, named Benedict Arnold. His plan was discovered when a British soldier was captured with a document detailing the surrender. I bet most of y’all didn’t know that,” Black smiled. “I know I didn’t.”

He was right, ‘
cause
I sure didn’t know that shit either.

“Nick, you and Freeze get a bottle and pour everybody a drink,” Black said. Once the glasses were filled, Black raised his glass. “By the way, several men were convicted of treason in connection with the Whiskey Rebellion,” Black laughed and downed his drink. “But they were pardoned by George Washington.”